Member Article

Lydd aviation company boosts brokerage business

Atlantic Bridge Aviation (ABA), which first started helping pilots to buy and sell privately owned aircraft 36 years ago, is expanding its brokerage business as it reports healthy growth in the General Aviation market.

Managing director, Jonathan Gordon, launched the Lydd aviation business in 1979 specialising in aircraft sales and global delivery.

ABA is promoting its brokerage services to aero clubs, airports and direct to owners across the UK and Europe, with a ‘price guarantee’ based on information contained in the Aircraft Bluebook, the industry ‘bible’ for aircraft values that is used worldwide.

With nearly four decades of experience under his belt – including advising on airline start-ups and airport development – Jonathan is well-positioned to comment on trends in the air travel sector, he said: “The long-term resilience of air travel to economic recessions and global events like wars and terrorist activity is well-known and it’s significant that after each event the market has rebounded strongly,

“We are in that recovery phase now, with all the recent forecasts by aircraft manufacturers and others indicating healthy traffic growth in air travel in the UK, Europe and worldwide.” Jonathan says ABA’s base at London Ashford Airport, at Lydd, puts them at the heart of a huge GA market.

“There are around 101,000 private aircraft located in Europe and the UK, with the vast majority – more than 80,000 – based in countries within a 500-mile radius of Lydd. The top three countries are France (around 30,000 GA aircraft), Germany (around 20,000) and the UK (around 15,000).

“Of these 101,000 aircraft, around 50% fall within the ‘regular trading’ market, so our location in the South East means we are ideally placed to service the needs of the General Aviation sector.”

The ABA group includes airline Lyddair which operates scheduled services from Kent to Le Touquet in France and the company is using its strong connections with the French airport to target potential customers on the continent.

“Having the ability to showcase our brokerage service in France is proving helpful for us, while being based at Lydd means we are also able to offer potential customers fuel and other airport services,” adds Jonathan.

Find out more about ABA Group in my interview with Jonathan Gordon, in which he discusses his plans to increase the productivity of corporate air travel.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .